Voice Training Woes

[Guest Briahnna]

Hey girls,

I've recently been working past my fears and forcing myself to do my voice work. I seem to be hitting a speed bump though and I was hoping I could get some help here. 1) I don't have anyone to help me IRL so I have no one to help make sure I am sounding OK. 2) I have been following some of the links in this section of the forum boards. There seems to be a lot of good info and wonderful Youtube stuff, but I am having a hard time understanding how to use the right muscles. Even things like when people say to tighten your vioce I don't quite get it.

I feel really really frustrated and am really depressed over it. I know I have only just started so I have a long road ahead. And while I know some of the pain and frustration is from not being there yet (I think all of us wish we were done yesterday and even that's too slow.) Most of my feelings about it are that I feel stupid for not understanding. Thanks for reading the rant and any help would really help, even links that help spell things out easier for me I would love the help

Love bri

[Guest Alexis_Kitty]

omg i totally know how you feel. I have been practicing for almost 8 months with Melanie Anne Speaks cd and I feel to depressed lately and just want to give up. I am not 100% sure on what to do like you. Or what it truly means to "tighten" your voice or what Melanie Anne says is to go into falsetto and tighten your throat and bring it down and then loosen your throat but keep your voice in the back of your throat instead of loosening it completely. And no its like will i ever get my voice? Its so depressing and im stressing so much over it and i only have about 20 mins (10 mins to work and 10 mins back) to work on it and i usually listen to it in my car and have been... just the resonance part for almost 8 months and its driving me flippin bonkers . If anyone has any suggestions on what we might do that would be great.

[Guest RainBird]

My situation is pretty much the same too. I bought the TSRoadmap 'Finding your female voice' DVD.

My voice has changed alot in the last 6 months. It sounds quite feminine in real life but it still sounds horrible, rather sounding 'male' on the phone or on recordings...

I can't get my head around the 'pinching' bit either! lol

It still get 'sirred' often when talking on the phone, but I happily correct them when they mistake me as male.

[Guest Daru]

I've noticed I talk different when with strangers (more guy-ish)

than I do with people I know...

Odd, didn't even realize it...

I don't understand those goofy commands they give either

[Sally]

All I can say is that I read a little bit of all of the 'how to' articles and came away feeling stupid. I took one bit of the advice and started my own program. I am a musician and had some (one class) of vocal training in college - a long time ago. But my teacher was a little lazy, there were six people in the class three girls and three boys - she gave all of the girls the soprano book and the guys got the tenor book - I am a natural bass! So I began working on my voice almost 40 years ago.

Here's my advice - don't aim for a coloratura soprano voice - altos are sexy. Raise the basic pitch of your voice about one fifth, that's the fifth note of the scale for non musicians. Do - Ra - Mi - Fa - So. So is your goal, no higher - this should begin to feel comfortable very quickly. The second part is something that comes naturally to almost everyone - impressions. As a kid almost everyone did impressions of celebrities, teachers, etc. Just listen and try to sound like what you heard. Pick feminine voices that are within your range - I sing along with Caren Carpenter - listen to Lauren Becall and Lauren Hutton - there is a Cadilac commercial where the beautiful woman is talking about what women want in a car and her voice is within easy range of every one.

Don't try to talk loudly for a long while - volume will come as your throat becomes used to the changes that you have made, go for a breathy sound with a little sybilance on the s sounds. All of the changes that they try to discribe in the 'how to' books and videos will occur by practicing the things that I have told you and listening to yourself - your subconscience can make much more subtle adjustments than the conscience mind.

Don't try so hard and let it happen - it will actually change much quicker.

I hope that helps and is easier to understand than most 'how to' articles.

Love ya,

Sally